Israel ranks third among 16 nations considered to be the strongest partners of innovation through science and technology with the United States, according to the 2013 US-Israel Innovation Index as published by the US-Israel Science & Technology Foundation (USISTF).

The survey is based on four key indicators — government relationships, human capital, industry cooperation, and research and development synergy.

Switzerland ranked highest with 131.05 points, followed by Canada with a score of 100.50 – just marginally stronger than Israel’s year one base line 100 point ranking.

“The Innovation Index shows that Israel’s innovation relationship with the United States is balanced, broad-based, and consistently strong in most indicators. Tracking these results over time will allow us to monitor the performance of the relationship. It serves as a professional set of metrics which will allow us to observe if there are changes, and subsequently address any potential negative trend, and re-enforce the positives to ensure that it is,” said USISTF Executive Director Ann Liebschutz.

“Israel is viewed as an R&D destination of choice among US companies, while many Israel companies enter the U.S. market to find strategic partners, and subsequently expand to a large economic market,” she added. “Further, US-Israel societal and cultural ties cover a large variety of non-scientific and non-technological elements of the relationship, which in turn, may further stimulate innovative interaction between the two countries in technology.”

Other countries ranked in the survey included: Singapore at 85.60; Germany at 74.34, South Korea at 72.27, Sweden at 71.71, Finland at 67.19, Japan at 60.92, Brazil at 29.86, Turkey at 27.37 and Russia at 13.60.Chile, Hong Kong, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates were also studied, but did not make the Top 12 list.